


Little Boy Lost

by PlaidAdder



Series: Missing Pages [22]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Grief/Mourning, M/M, Story: The Adventure of the Empty House
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 08:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14849642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlaidAdder/pseuds/PlaidAdder
Summary: Sherlock Holmes breaks it to Mrs. Hudson that he's still alive. He finds out something about her that he never knew.





	Little Boy Lost

 

August --, 1891

Dear Patrick,

You will never guess who walked into my sitting room this morning. Will you? Go on, guess. Guess! Oh, don't be cross, Patrick, I'll tell you: it was Mr. Sherlock Holmes! Now wasn't that a surprise! Well, not to you, Patrick, of course you must have known all along. But you didn't tell me, Patrick. Not a word of it did you breathe. Now wasn't that naughty of you? I heard the knock and went to open the door and he was on the step in his black coat and top hat and I tell you it gave me such a fright! I thought he was a ghost, you see, come to call because I'd been missing him so. And you know, Patrick, how I've always said it would be such a comfort--but it isn't actually, it's a mortal terror. I suppose you've always known that?

He caught me by the arm, so I didn't fall, and I said, are you not dead then sir? He smiled at me just the way you used to smile when you were playing a trick on me. We went to my sitting room where I had just set out the tea things and he made me a lovely strong cup of tea and had one for himself. He said take your tea, Mrs. Hudson, it's a bit of a long story but I've nothing pressing to do today except to put in my appearance at Watson's just before dinnertime.

I said to him then, now Mr. Holmes, do be careful. I know you love to play your tricks, but you see some people don't like that sort of joke. He was very ill after he returned from Switzerland, sir, it was quite pitiful. I called upon him as soon as I heard and oh dear, he didn't know me at all and there was poor Mrs. Watson by the bedside trying not to mind what he was saying. You won't give him such a shock as you gave me, will you? For I don't know if he's strong enough to bear it.

My dear Mrs. Hudson, do calm yourself, said Mr. Holmes. Watson is perfectly well and knows exactly where I am. We simply do not wish the entire government to know that he knows. We would like them to believe that he has, in my absence, been getting on with his life, cultivating hobbies, traveling to the country--in short, not grieving in any extraordinary or pathological way. Watson has therefore taken on a new servant who is willing to work for half wages, and we are quite confident that when we play our little melodrama later this evening, reports of Dr. Watson's astonished but by no means excessive reaction to the dramatic revelation of his friend and colleague's survival will speedily reach the chambers of power and the ears of the curious.

Well, Patrick, if you found that fatiguing to read, that's nothing compared to how fatiguing it is to listen to; but I did so enjoy hearing his voice in the house once again that I just let him ramble on. Then I realized he was talking about Doctor Watson coming back to share with him again and did that meet with my approval and if so should we discuss the terms of the lease.

My own Patrick, you know I found it hard to take a Stern tone with you; but then I never saw you grow to be a man, and if I had, I am certain you would have been a more thoughtful and considerate one than Mr. Holmes has sometimes been. I said to him, Mr. Holmes I have some conditions, and he sighed, and I named them. Things a boy like you wouldn't care about--mealtimes at regular hours, and storage of weapons, and charges for hot water after hours, and so on. He was far easier about coming to terms than before. But then I said, now Mr. Holmes, there is one more condition and I absolutely insist upon it. Before you sign another lease with that poor man, you will tell him that you're in love with him.

Oh Patrick, the look on his face! He stared, and then he blushed, and then he got up from his chair and turned round, and then he turned round again and leaned on the back of the chair, and then he said, I have told him that, Mrs. Hudson. He took it well. 

There's a discomfited look men have sometimes, when they find you know something about life. He had it then. I don't expect you to understand these things, of course, Patrick; but it vexed me that Mr. Holmes should after all he's put me through think me as innocent as a girl your age. The state of his bedlinens alone! Well, sir, I said, I'll be very pleased to have you both in your old rooms, only please do think now and again about the washing up, for I'm not as young as I once was.

He promised he would be more considerate. And he said it so gently that I couldn't help thinking of you, Patrick, and your big brown eyes and your mop of curly black hair. And he asked me what was wrong.

I said, you've come back now, sir, and welcome, but I did think you dead, for Patrick told me he'd seen you. And he sat me down quite slowly in the armchair and said, and Patrick is your...husband? I was about to draw breath, and he said no, not husband...child? I could not help feeling angry with you, and that made me cry. I told him how we talk sometimes, mainly me to you, but sometimes i do hear from you quite clearly, and you did tell me that you'd seen Mr. Holmes and he was very happy. But it wasn't true. He wasn't dead. So I told him, either Patrick lied to me or else...or else it isn't really Patrick talking to me at all, it's just me talking to myself, and that's all it's ever been.

 He drew his chair next to mine and took my hand. He looked into my eyes, and he said, I'm sure your Patrick was a very kind and truthful little boy. I wept then, for despite your mischief he is right about you. I told him how your grandparents wanted me to give you up but I said no. I got right out of bed and marched into the parlor where they were meeting that lady from the charity hospital and I snatched you out of the bassinet, I said, and took you to London where I got work in a boarding house. You were a great favorite there with all the girls, with your great curls and your rascally smile. They all cried their eyes out over you.

Mr. Holmes patted my hand gently and he said to me: Mrs. Hudson, there was a time a few weeks ago when I was chloroformed for several hours. Doctor Watson has told me I was put about as far under as I could have been and still come back. I have no memory of that. I have no idea where I actually was while my body was locked in that box. Who is to say that I could not have been in heaven, visiting your Patrick? For I was thinking about heaven, Mrs. Hudson, just before I went under. I said but this was weeks and weeks ago he told me, right after I read about you in the papers. Oh Mrs. Hudson, he said. Do you think that in heaven they reckon time as we do here? Surely not. 

When he explains a thing, Patrick, you just know that it is all settled forever. I saw just how it was. He'd crossed over to you for a time, and then he came back. And I cried so, thinking about it. He asked me what was wrong. I said, you came back sir, and why couldn't Patrick? Why can he never come back to me? He did not have an answer for that. But he was very kind, Patrick. He sat with me for a long time, and when I was a little better he asked if it would cheer me up to have an adventure tonight. I said it would be immensely cheering. And so he told me his plan. I think you would enjoy it, Patrick. It's so clever and so daft and dangerous. He's gone to Doctor Watson's now. I do hope that will be all right. Mr. Holmes said, just as he was leaving: we both know, Mrs. Hudson, that I'm not the only lodger you have who can't always resist a touch of the dramatic.

So Patrick, you can see, I'm not angry. I know you were only mixed up a bit. You're only five years old, and bound to find things a bit confusing. But it will be no time at all, to you, before I'm there to help. Night night, sleep tight, I'll see you when the day is bright.

Your loving mamma, 

Martha Hudson

 

**Author's Note:**

> My explanation of where this story came from got too long for a note, but you can read it [here](http://plaidadder.tumblr.com/post/174598816414/sitting-in-a-corner-and-thinking-about-what-ive). This is, no doubt about it, a really sad story. But if you want to cheer yourself up afterward: try re-reading "The Empty House" knowing that Watson and Holmes found each other weeks ago, have been having sex every day since then, and are performing this reunion scene purely for the benefit of the Committee spy Watson just deliberately hired (anyone who is willing to work for half wages ALWAYS has an ulterior motive).


End file.
